IrOBER T  BROW 


DWARD  A.G.HERMANN 


UC-NRLF 


B    3    315    OTT 


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THE  FAITH 
OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 


BY 

EDWARD  A.   G.   HERMANN 


"So  take  and  use  Thy  work: 
Amend  what  flaws  may  lurk. 
What  strain  o'  the  stuff,  what 
warpings  past  the  aim!" 

Rabbi  Bek  Ezra 


BOSTON 

SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &  COMPANY 

1916 


copymght,  1916 
Sherman,  French  &>  Company 


THE  FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

In  an  attempt  to  interpret  the  faith  of 
Robert  Browning  it  may  not  be  necessary  to 
go  back  to  the  source  and  trace  the  course  of 
all  those  streams  of  thought  that  flowed  down 
into  the  life  of  the  last  century.  We  must, 
however,  take  into  account  some  of  the  more 
important  intellectual  tendencies  of  modem 
times,  for  we  can  hardly  hope  to  understand 
Robert  Browning's  message,  nor  fully  appre- 
ciate the  greatness  of  his  faith,  unless  we  real- 
ize to  some  extent  the  power  of  those  deep, 
silent  under-currents  and  cross-currents  of 
error  which  swept  so  many  from  their  old 
moorings  and  carried  them  into  an  unknown 
sea,  only  to  make  shipwreck  of  their  faith. 
Browning  not  only  resisted  these  treacherous 
currents  but  made  progress  in  spite  of  them. 
Amid  the  storms  that  raged  about  his  intel- 
lectual life  he  always  felt  secure  because  Hope 
was  his  anchor,  and  he  came  into  port  grandly 
because  God  had  been  the  Captain  of  his  soul. 

In  many  ways  the  century  that  produced 
Robert  Browning  was  the  greatest  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  The  progress  of  the  last 
1 


2      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

fifty  years  has  been  unprecedented.  It  has 
been  a  century  of  material,  intellectual  and 
moral  achievement.  Notwithstanding  the  pres- 
ence in  our  civilization  of  a  crass  materialism 
and  its  progeny  of  evils,  we  may  say  that  faith 
played  no  little  part  in  this  wonderful  progress 
and  the  century  ended  with  a  shout  of  triumph. 

But  the  nineteenth  century  began  with  a  wail 
of  despair.  What  was  w^rong  with  humanity.? 
Humanity  had  lost  its  faith  in  God.  Back  in 
the  past  something  had  happened  that  had 
shaken  the  very  foundations  of  belief  and  a 
satisfactory  readjustment  had  not  yet  taken 
place. 

Just  as  before  and  after  a  volcanic  eruption 
you  can  feel  the  vibrations  in  the  earth,  indi- 
cating that  something  is  about  to  happen,  or 
has  happened,  in  the  world  of  nature,  so,  for 
a  long  time  before  and  after  the  Renaissance 
and  the  Reformation,  disturbing  influences  were 
at  work  in  the  intellectual  and  religious  life  of 
the  world.  The  sub-normal  conditions  of  Eu- 
ropean society  in  the  Middle  Ages  made  an 
upheaval  necessary.  The  soul-life  of  human- 
ity may  be  buried  for  centuries  in  a  grave  dug 
by  a  selfish  materialism,  or  a  false  philosophy, 
or  a  tyrannical  ecclesiasticism,  but  in  some 
great  crisis, —  some  joyous  resurrection  day, 
—  it  will  arise  again  and  assert  its  power. 
When  these  upheavals  occur,  whether  we  think 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      3 

of  them  in  relation  to  the  past  as  a  resurrec- 
tion or  in  relation  to  the  future  as  a  new  birth, 
the  niew  knowledge  acquired  and  the  new  forces 
set  in  motion  impose  upon  future  generations 
the  task  of  readjusting  the  new  knowledge  to 
the  growing  life.  This  is  what  has  actually 
happened  in  our  modern  era.  We  have  been 
busy  during  these  past  few  centuries  trying  to 
find  our  place  in  the  new  universe  that  has 
come  into  existence  through  Copernicus  and 
others,  and  we  are  just  beginning  to  get  our 
bearings  and  to  recover  our  sense  of  an  imma- 
nent God. 

The  Renaissance  was  a  new  birth  in  the  in- 
tellectual life  and  the  Reformation  a  new  birth 
in  the  religious  life  of  the  world, —  upheavals, 
if  you  please,  from  which  have  come  influences 
whose  power  for  evil  and  for  good  has  not  yet 
been  fully  spent.  For  the  time  being  the  far- 
away God  of  the  Dark  Ages  was  rediscovered 
in  this  world.  The  former  attitude  of  other- 
worldliness  gave  place  to  a  humanistic  tend- 
ency, and  interest  was  centered  not  in  a  dis- 
tant heaven  but  in  the  affairs  of  this  life. 
Reason  and  Faith  began  to  breathe  the  air  of 
freedom.  But  even  in  this  new  atmosphere 
lurked  the  germs  of  a  morbid  pessimism  which 
was  destined  to  disease  the  mind  of  a  later  gen- 
eration. The  shifting  of  emphasis  to  this 
world,  during  the  Renaissance,  caused  a  reac- 


4      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

tion  afterwards  into  an  extreme  form  of  pan- 
theism in  which  God,  as  a  spirit  pervading  all 
things,  w^as  vaguely  felt,  but  the  sense  of  God 
as  a  Personality  entirely  lost.  And  pantheism 
inevitably  leads  either  to  atheism  or  to  agnos- 
ticism. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  narrow  orthodoxy 
of  the  seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth  century 
reacted  into  Deism  which  pushed  God  so  far 
away  again  that  it  v»'as  practically  a  renun- 
ciation of  Him.  Reason  was  enthroned  and 
infidelity  ran  rampant.  Compte  thought  that 
humanity  had  gotten  along  so  far  that  it  could 
henceforth  easily  dispense  with  a  God.  He 
declared  that  "  science  would  conduct  God  to 
the  frontier  of  His  universe  and  politely  bow 
Him  out,  with  thanks  for  His  provisional  serv- 
ices." That  is  practically  what  Deism  did, — 
with  the  "thanks"  omitted!  The  light  by 
which  the  good  God  had  meant  to  lead  His  chil- 
dren into  a  clearer  conception  of  the  truth  was 
revealed  so  suddenly  and  wdth  such  intensity 
that  many  were  blinded  and  were  left  to  grope 
in  the  darkness  of  unbelief.  The  reaction  that 
set  in  after  the  Reformation  is  well  stated  by 
Symonds.  In  referring  to  the  modern  age  of 
the  disintegration  of  old  beliefs  he  says :  "  We 
are  undergoing  the  greatest  cataclysm  of 
thought  that  the  world  has  ever  suffered,  and 
in  the  midst  of  it  all  some  must  perish.     The 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      5 

cataclysm  began  with  the  Reformation.  That 
was  the  first  and  most  powerful  introduction 
of  a  scepticism  which  since  has  never  ceased  to 
work,  successfully  undermining  in  the  world  at 
large  ...  all  creeds,  from  the  most  insignifi- 
cant to  the  most  vital.  And  in  this  destructive 
work  science  has  helped."  I  quote  this  well- 
known  passage  not  only  to  point  out  the  perils 
of  an  intellectual  democracy  but  also  to  show 
the  tendency  toward  the  scientific  materialism 
which  robbed  so  many  thinkers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  of  their  faith  in  God. 

During  these  few  centuries  the  pendulum  of 
thought  swung  constantly  between  the  ex- 
tremes of  pantheism  and  transcendentalism. 
In  discussing  the  religious  problem  and  show- 
ing that  the  modern  trend  is  toward  immanence 
Eucken  says  that  both  these  views, —  the  pan- 
theistic and  the  transcendental, —  result  in  a 
life  devoid  of  religion.  "  At  first  the  divine  is 
brought  near  to  our  existence ;  then  it  is  closely 
associated  with  it  as  an  inspiring  force,  and 
finally  it  totally  disappears,  or  vanishes  to  an 
unapproachable  distance." 

These  were  some  of  the  influences  that  en- 
tered into  the  intellectual  life  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  they  naturally  helped  to  create  an 
atmosphere  of  pessimism.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  a  wail  of  despair  went  up  from  the  heart 
of  humanity,  for,  if  we  may  use  Matthew  Ar- 


6      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

nold's  phrase  in  this  connection,  humanity  was 
lying  helpless  and  hopeless  between  two  worlds, 
— "  one  dead,  the  other  powerless  to  be  born." 
We  need  only  to  read  the  literature  of  this 
period  to  see  how  deeply  the  atmosphere  was 
colored  with  gloom.  Literature  is  like  a  vast 
mirror  reflecting  the  life  of  the  age  which  pro- 
duces it.  Schopenhauer,  prince  of  pessimistic 
philosophers,  while  personally  not  only  unat- 
tractive but  even  repulsive  and,  therefore, 
often  friendless,  had  a  host  of  unconscious  fol- 
lowers who,  like  him,  felt  only  pain  and  want 
and  deemed  it  sheer  folly  to  seek  peace  in  this 
world  or  to  hope  for  happiness  in  a  world  to 
come.  Their  creed  is  well  expressed  in 
Thompson's  familiar  lines : 

*'  O  length  of  the  intolerable  hours ! 
O  nights  that  are  as  aeons  of  slow  pain ! 
O  Time,  too  ample  for  our  vital  powers ! 
O  Life  whose  woeful  vanities  remain 
Immutable  for  all  of  all  our  legions 
Through  all  the  centuries  and  in  all  the  regions, 
Not  of  your  speed  and  variance  do  we  complain. 
We  do  not  ask  a  longer  term  of  strife, 
Weakness  and  weariness  and  nameless  woes; 
We  do  not  claim  renewed  and  endless  life 
When  this  which  is  our  torment  here  shall  close, 
And  everlasting  conscious  inanition ! 
We  yearn  for  speedy  death  in  full  fruition, 
Dateless  oblivion  and  divine  repose." 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      7 

Can  you  imagine  a  philosophy  of  life  more 
hopeless  than  this?  Even  Buddha's  creed  was 
nobler.  An  intellectual  atmosphere  in  which 
such  a  poem  could  be  produced  must  have  been 
devoid  of  vital  faith. 

Into  an  atmosphere  saturated,  or  at  least 
tainted,  with  such  pessimistic  ideas  three  great 
religious  poets  were  born.  One  was  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  classic  type  whose  beauty  of 
form  almost  makes  one  long  for  the  intellectual 
culture  of  ancient  Greece;  another,  a  singer 
whose  sweet  music  is  often  in  the  minor  key, 
yet  so  mystic  in  its  rhythm  that  somehow  it 
has  the  power  to  subdue  the  heart's  restlessness 
and  sorrow ;  the  third,  a  rugged,  fearless 
prophet  whose  glowing  idealism  and  moral 
militancy  summon  us  to  a  life  of  heroic  thought 
and  action.  I  said  that  all  three  were  religious 
poets,  but  we  must  yield  to  Robert  Browning 
the  place  of  pre-eminence  as  a  poet  of  faith. 
For  the  sake  of  contrast  I  shall  quote  a  few 
characteristic  lines,  first  from  Matthew  Arnold 
and  then  from  Alfred  Tennyson. 

Arnold's  religious  attitude  is  admirably  set 
forth  in  his  poem  entitled  "  Dover  Beach  "  : 

"  The  sea  is  calm  tonight. 
The  tide  is  full,  the  moon  lies  fair 
Upon  the  straits ;  —  on  the  French  coast  the  light 
Gleams,  and  is  gone;  the  cliffs  of  England  stand, 
Glimmering  and  vast,  out  in  the  tranquil  bay. 


8      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

Come  to  the  window;  sweet  is  the  night  air, 
Only,  from  the  long  line  of  spray- 
Where  the  sea  meets  the  moon-blanched  sand, 
Listen!  you  hear  the  grating  roar 
Of  pebbles  which  the  waves  draw  back  and  fling, 
At  their  return,  up  the  high  strand. 
Begin,  and  cease,  and  then  again  begin. 
With  tremulous  cadence  slow,  and  bring 
The  eternal  note  of  sadness  in. 

"  Sophocles  long  ago 
Heard  it  on  the  ^Egean,  and  it  brought 
Into  his  mind  the  turbid  ebb  and  flow 
Of  human  misery;  we 
Find  also  in  the  sound  a  thought 
Hearing  it  by  this  distant  northern  sea. 

"  The  sea  of  faith 
Was  once,  too,  at  the  full,  and  round  earth's  shore 
Lay  like  the  folds  of  a  bright  girdle  furled. 
But  now  I  only  hear 
Its  melancholy,  long,  withdrawing  roar. 
Retreating  to  the  breath 

Of  the  night  wind,  down  the  vast  edges  drear, 
And  naked  shingles  of  the  world. 

"  Ah,  Love,  let  us  be  true 
To  one  another,  for  the  world  which  seems 
To  lie  before  us  like  a  land  of  dreams. 
So  various,  so  beautiful,  so  new. 
Hath  really  neither  joy,  nor  love,  nor  light, 
Nor  certitude,  nor  peace,  nor  help  in  pain; 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      9 

And  we  are  here  as  on  a  darkling  plain, 
Swept    with    confused    alarms    of    struggle    and 

flight, 
Where  ignorant  armies  clash  by  night/* 

These  melancholy  moods,  so  characteristic 
of  Matthew  Arnold,  were  born  of  a  sense  of 
spiritual  loss.  He  is  not  a  poet  of  faith,  but 
of  despair.  His  face  is  ever  turned  toward  the 
past,  and  he  sighs  for  the  golden  glory  of  a 
day  that  will  never  come  back  again. 

Tennyson  stands  half-way  between  Arnold 
and  Browning.  Like  the  latter,  he  is  the 
product  of  the  scientific  age  which  produced 
Charles  Darwin,  Thomas  Huxley,  John  Stuart 
Mill  and  Herbert  Spencer.  He  was  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  current  scientific  knowl- 
edge and  in  his  efforts  to  reconcile  science  with 
religion  he  coined  many  striking  phrases.  But 
in  order  to  prove  the  correctness  of  some  pet 
theory,  or  to  defend  some  favorite  doctrine,  he 
is  quoted  by  sceptics  as  often  as  by  believers. 
Professor  Royce,  of  Harvard,  in  his  "  Studies 
of  Good  and  Evil,"  devotes  an  entire  chapter 
to  a  discussion  of  the  "  Pessimism  of  Tenny- 
son," and  shows  what  a  great  change  had  come 
over  the  poet's  faith  from  the  time  he  wrote 
"  Locksley  Hall  "  to  the  time  he  wrote  "  Locks- 
ley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After."  Indeed,  we 
know  that  even  in  his  earlier  years  Tennyson 


10      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

was  so  profoundly  touched  by  the  mystery  of 
human  sorrow  that  his  faith  was  well  nigh 
eclipsed.  In  that  great  religious  poem,  "  In 
Memoriam,"  in  which  he  faces  the  problem 
which  in  another  form  baffled  the  mind  of 
^Eschylus  and  Job,  he  confesses  that  we  who 
love,  and  lose,  and  suffer,  are  like  mere  chil- 
dren "  crying  in  the  night,"  like  children  "  cry- 
ing for  the  light,  and  with  no  language  but  a 
cry."     And  again  he  cries  out  pathetically: 

"  I  falter  where  I  firmly  trod, 
And,  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  altar  stairs 
That  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God, 

"  I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope, 
And  gather  dust  and  chalF,  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  Lord  of  all, 
And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope." 

In  the  vast  world  of  life  "  so  various,  so 
beautiful,  so  new,"  Arnold  could  see  "  neither 
joy,  nor  light,  nor  certitude,  nor  peace,  nor 
help  in  pain."  Browning,  too,  had  heard  the 
"  melancholy  roar  "  of  the  "  sea  of  faith,"  but 
its  sadness  did  not  depress  him.  For  mingled 
with  what  seemed  to  Arnold  the  "  eternal  note 
of  sadness "  Browning  heard  an  "  eternal 
note "  of  joy.  Browning,  too,  heard  all 
around  him  the  shrieks  of  human  despair,  but 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      11 

he  could  sing  hymns  of  hope  through  stormy, 
starless  nights,  because  his  spiritual  instincts 
always  foretold  the  dawning  of  the  new  day. 

"  Love,  hope,  fear,  faith  —  these  make  humanity," 

he  said. 

And  in  the  indistinct  twilight  which  comes 
between  the  darkness  and  the  day,  where  Ten- 
nyson only  "  groped,"  and  "  faltered,"  and 
"  faintly  trusted  "  the  "  larger  hope,"  Brown- 
ing was  confident  and  courageous.  As  he  said 
of  Sordello,  we  may  say  of  him : 

"  He  at  least  believed  in  soul,  was  very  sure  of 
God," — 

a  line  which  Miss  Ethel  Naish  says  represents 
the  "  irreducible  minimum "  of  his  optimistic 
creed.  And  he  could  reach  no  sublimer  mood 
than  when  he  cried  out  with  the  joy  which  is 
the  fruit  of  assurance: 

**  God !     Thou    art    Love !     I    build    my    faith    on 
that !  " 

At  a  time  when  men's  minds  were  most  be- 
fogged there  was  need  for  such  a  man  of  vision 
who  could  read  the  spiritual  meaning  back  of 
the  conflicts  of  the  new  age,  give  a  fresh  in- 
terpretation of  the  eternal  verities,  and  start 


12      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

humanity  again  on  its  upward  march  toward 
God. 

One  of  the  foremost  literary  critics  of  our 
da}^  has  pronounced  Browning  as  "  the  most 
profoundly  subtle  mind  that  has  exercised  it- 
self in  poetry  since  Shakespeare."  A  man  of 
intense  personal  sympathy,  his  imagination 
penetrated  into  every  phase  of  human  experi- 
ence, and  his  lofty  idealism  enabled  him  to  win 

"  God  out  of  knowledge  and  good  out  of  infinite 
pain^ 
And  sight  out  of  blindness  and  purity  out  of  a 
stain." 

His  exuberant  spirit  sometimes  took  a  playful 
mood,  but  he  was  never  a  mere  sentimentalist. 
iWith  warmth  of  feeling  there  was  always  depth 
jof  thought.  Indeed,  so  deeply  did  he  delve 
into  the  most  intricate  problems  of  existence 
and  so  earnestly  did  he  search  for  an  intellec- 
tual solution  that  he  is  regarded  by  some  as  a 
philosopher  no  less  than  as  a  poet.  It  is  often 
difficult  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  Browning 
the  poet  and  Browning  the  philosopher.  It 
would  not  be  improper  to  say,  as  Professor 
Jones  suggests,  that  he  was  a  philosopher  in 
the  sense  in  which  Plato  was  a  poet.  His 
genius  was  consecrated  to  the  noble  task  of 
revealing  both  beauty  and  truth.  It  was,  no 
doubt,   the   consciousness   of  great   intellectual 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      13 

strength  that  led  him,  after  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Browning,  to  wander  into  the  dangerous  field 
of  metaphysics,  but  this  latter  part  of  his  lit- 
erary career  has  been  considered  as  the  period 
of  decadence.     Much  of  his  last  work  lacks  the 
daring  intellectual  force  and  the  moral  vigor 
of  his  earlier  years,  and  there  are  weak  places  / 
where  the  speculations  of  the  would-be  philosoV 
pher   break   down.     The   cause   of   this   decline 
has   been  attributed  to   failing  health  and  tl^^ 
grief  which  the  poet  felt  over  the  loss  of  his^ 
devoted  wife,  who  during  her  life-time  had  been  I 

the  inspiration  of  his  best  work.  ^ 

But  Browning  never  ceased  to  be  stimulating 
and  helpful.  If  his  faith  is  occasionally  ov^- 
shadowed  with  a  cloud  of  doubt  we  somehow 
feel  that  behind  the  cloud  the  sun  is  still  shin- 
ing and  in  a  moment  or  two  will  burst  out 
again  in  all  its  glory.  His  intellectual  cour- 
age often  fills  us  with  the  love  of  adventure, 
and  we  begin  our  quest  of  truth  in  some  un- 
tried and  unknown  land.  We  are  lured  across 
green,  sunlit  meadows  where  song-birds  flood 
the  air  with  melody,  and  where  we  may  pluck 
the  rarest  flowers  of  the  imagination.  Then 
comes  the  climb  over  the  steep  hills,  and  we  get 
a  vision  of  the  mystic  heights  beyond.  The 
road  winds,  and  is  often  rough  and  stony,  but 
though  the  feet  bleed  and  the  heart  grow 
weary,  we  go  on  in  our  quest  until  —  we  real- 


14      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

ize  that  we  have  wandered  into  a  vast  wilder- 
ness of  thought  and  are  "  lost,"  and  can  hardly 
find  our  way  out!  We  fain  would  travel  back 
again  over  the  old  beaten  road,  and  stifle  for- 
ever the  questionings  of  the  mind  and  the  un- 
satisfied hunger  of  the  heart.  But  it  is  in  such 
moments  of  mental  darkness  that  the  spirit  of 
the  adventurer  comes  to  our  aid,  and  quickens 
our  faltering  faith,  and  guides  us  out  of  dark- 
ness into  the  light  of  truth. 

"  If  I  stoop 
Into  a  dark,  tremendous  sea  of  cloud, 
It  is  but  for  a  time;  I  press  God's  lamp 
Close  to  my  breast;  its  splendor,  soon  or  late, 
Will  pierce  the  gloom;  I  shall  emerge  some  day.** 

But  it  is  Browning  the  poet,  not  the  philoso- 
pher, who  inspires  us  with  his  gospel  of  cour- 
age and  hope.  His  greatness  is  not  due  to  the 
artistic  form  in  which  he  clothed  his  thoughts. 
It  is  the  religious  element  that  runs  through 
all  his  work  that  sets  him  apart  as  a  man  of 
faith.  His  art  is  merely  the  channel  through 
which  he  ministers  to  the  needs  of  the  higher 
life.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  exponents  of 
the  art  of  optimism  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  One  of  his  best  interpreters  puts  him  in 
that  class  of  poets  who  are  also  prophets,  and 
says :  "  He  was  never  the  '  idle  singer  of  an 
empty  day,'  but  one  for  whom  poetic  enthusi- 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      15 

asm  was  intimately  bound  up  with  religious 
faith,  and  who  '  spoke  in  numbers  '  not  merely 
because  *  the  numbers  came,'  but  because  they 
were  for  him  the  necessary  vehicle  of  an  in- 
spiring thought." 

Because  of  the  strong  dramatic  element  in 
Browning's  w^ritings  it  has  seemed  difficult  for 
some  to  determine  just  what  is  the  poet's  own 
faith,  for  as  a  literary  artist  he  could  easily 
hide  his  own  feelings  behind  the  many  charac- 
ters created  by  his  vivid  and  versatile  imag- 
ination. But  as  we  move  among  Browning's 
men  and  women  we  cannot  escape  the  influence 
of  his  wonderful  personality.  The  great  soul 
of  the  man  cannot  be  hid.  His  faith  is  like  a 
vein  of  gold  running  through  the  cumbersome 
mass  of  science,  philosophy  and  art,  sometimes 
shining  clearly  on  the  surface,  at  other  times 
imbedded  in  the  crude  rock.  But  if  we  have 
the  eye  for  spiritual  beauty  and  the  instinct  of 
the  lover  of  the  truth  we  can  readily  distin- 
guish what  is  pure  gold  from  what  is  worthless 
or  inferior  foreign  matter.  The  vein  here  and 
there  runs  deep,  and  he  who  would  possess  the 
gold  must  dig.  We  have  picked  up  from  this 
mine  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  treasure  only 
a  few^  nuggets  which  may  serve  as  specimens  of 
the  rich  quality  of  his  faith. 

Ernest  Haeckel  has  declared  that  "  God, 
freedom   and   immortality   are  the   three  great 


16      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

buttresses  of  superstition  which  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  science  to  destroy."  I  shall  not  try 
to  prove  that  he  was  wrong.  But  I  should  like 
to  contrast  with  his  rank  materialism  Brown- 
ing's fine  spiritual  idealism,  and  stress  the 
practical  value  of  his  faith.  These  three 
"  buttresses  of  superstition  "  at  which  Haeckel 
would  point  the  destructive  guns  of  science  are 
the  very  foundation-stones  that  support 
Browning's  massive  temple.  He  could  see  no 
such  fatal  antagonism  between  science  and  re- 
ligion. It  was  precisely  along  these  lines  that 
he  built  up  his  sublime  faith,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  he  accepted  the  best  conclusions 
of  contemporary  science  as  the  most  satisfac- 
tory explanations  of  natural  phenomena.  He 
believed  in  God  and  man  and  immortality,  and 
he  was  no  worse  off  than  Haeckel.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  application  of  his  faith  to  the 
experiences  and  problems  of  life  proved  him  to 
be  a  man  of  good,  practical  common-sense. 
His  virile  manhood  was  the  direct  outgrowth 
of  his  vital  faith.  Superstition  cannot  pro- 
duce a  type  of  noble  character,  nor  can  science 
rob  us  of  that  which  is  best  in  life  and  religion. 
Perhaps  Browning  was  not  always  orthodox  in 
the  strictly  evangelical  sense,  but  who  can  deny 
that  with  open  mind  he  ever  sought  for  truth, 
and  having  found  it,  followed  it  with  an  intel- 
lectual honesty  and  a  moral  courage  that  mark 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      17 

him   as   a   true   man   and   a  prophet   of   God? 
Instead  of  destroying  his  faith  in  a  God  of 
whom  he  thought  as  Wisdom,  Goodness,  Power, 
Love,  science  only  strengthened  and  deepened 
it.     When  God  seemed  lost  in  all  the  intricate 
and    complex   machinery    of   natural   law,    this 
brave  man  took  the  telescope  from  the  hands 
of  the  sceptical  scientist  and,  looking  up,  cried 
out :     "  Behold !  I  see  an  angel  standing  in  the 
sun ! "     Likewise  he  took  the   microscope   and 
read  the  mystic  secret  of  life  that  slumbered  in 
the  heart  of  a  rose, — "  I  saw  God  everywhere." 
Science  gave  him  the  idea  of  God  as  a  First 
Great  Cause,  eternally  creating,  faithfully  sus- 
taining, lovingly  permeating  the  life  of  Nature 
and  the  life  of  man.     He  conceived  of  God  as 
the  source,  the  substance   and  the  sum  of  all 
things,    animate    and    inanimate;   mysteriously 
transcending  His  creation  and  yet  unceasingly 
working  in  it;  carrying  out  His  purposes  of 
holy     love     in     accordance     with     an     orderly 
method.     And   the   see-er  becomes  the   say-er; 
the  poet  turns  prophet  and  acts   as  mediator 
between  science  and  religion.     If  he  saw  God 
everywhere  it  was  his  joyous  privilege  to   in- 
terpret God  to  those  who  were  in  doubt. 

"  I  spoke  as  I  saw; 
I  report  as  a  man  may  of  God's  work, —  all's  love, 
yet  all's  law. 


18      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

Now  I  lay  down  the  judgeship  He  lent  me.  Each 
faculty  tasked 

To  perceive  Him,  has  gained  an  abyss  where  a  dew- 
drop  was  asked." 

But  it  was  not  through  a  purely  rational 
process  that  Browning  found  God.  It  is  true 
that  as  a  great  religious  philosopher  he  de- 
lighted to  test  his  strength,  and  piled  up  argu- 
ment upon  argument  until  the  apex  of  his 
intellectual  pyramid  touched  the  very  heavens 
wherein  the  Divine  being  sat  enthroned.  But 
personally  he  did  not  need  the  proof  of  logic 
to  convince  him  of  the  existence  of  God.  It 
was  rather  through  a  process  of  spiritual  intu- 
ition that  he  made  this  greatest  of  all  discov- 
eries,—  God !  The  scientist  may  sweep  the 
starry  heavens  with  his  telescope  in  his  search 
for  God  and  still  cry  out  with  Job  in  the  bitter 
agony  of  disappointment :  "  O  that  I  knew 
where  I  might  find  Him !  "  But  this  was  to 
him  the  grandest,  most  self-evident  fact  in  the 
universe.  His  faith  here  has  all  the  assurance 
of  certain  knowledge.  It  is  sheer  folly  to  at- 
tempt to  prove  mathematically  what  authenti- 
cates itself  as  the  truth  to  the  receptive  mind 
and  believing  heart. 

"  I  know  that  He  is  there,  as  I  am  here, 
By  the  same  proof  which  seems  no  proof  at  all. 
It  so  exceeds  familiar  forms  of  proof." 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      19 

He  knows  God  through  spiritual  fellowship, — 
feels  Him  as  a  sublime  Reality  throbbing  at 
the  very  centre  of  life  and  things. 

In  "  Pauline,"  his  first  published  poem,  we 
already  see  that  lofty  idealism  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  all  his  finest  work.  In  these  years  of 
early  manhood, —  he  was  then  only  twenty, — 
there  struggled  in  his  soul  mysterious  forces 
which  drew  him  irresistibly  toward  God.  His 
spiritual  attitude  determined  his  moral  growth: 

"  I  have  always  had  one  lode-star ;  now 
As  I  look  back  I  see  that  I  have  halted 
Or  hastened  as  I  looked  toward  that  star, — 
A  need,  a  trust,  a  yearning  after  God." 

**  My  soul  must  still  advance. 
I  cannot  chain  my  soul;  it  will  not  rest 
In  its  clay  prison,  this  narrow  sphere; 
It  has  strange  impulse,  tendency,  desire 
Which  no  wise  I  account  for,  nor  explain, 
But  cannot  stifle,  being  bound  to  trust 
All  feelings  equally." 

In  this  divine  restlessness  of  youth  he  bursts 
out  passionately: 

"  O  God !  where  do  they  tend, —  these  struggling 
aims? 
What  would  I  have?     What  is  this  sleep  which 
seems 


3      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

To  bound  all?     Can  there  be  a  waking  point  of 

crowning  life? 
And  what  is  that  I  hunger  for  but  God  ?  " 


**  My  God !     My  God !     Let  me  for  once  look  on 
Thee 
As  though  naught  else  existed,  we  alone! 
And  as  creation  crumbles,  my  soul's  spark 
Expand  till  I  can  say, —  even  from  my  self, — 
*  I  need  Thee  and  I  feel  Thee  and  I  love  Thee.'  " 

And  "  Pauline "  concludes  with  this  compre- 
hensive statement  which  may  be  taken  as  the 
poet's  own  confession  of  faith: 

"  I  believe  in  God  and  truth  and  love." 

To  Browning  God  was  not  only  an  abstract 
principle,  nor  even  a  divine  spirit  diffused 
through  the  universe.  He  was  a  personality, 
—  a  God  of  power,  righteousness  and  love, 
manifesting  Himself  in  nature,  in  man  and  in 
Christ. 

Browning  is  not  usually  regarded  as  a  poet 
of  nature,  and  yet  he  has  much  in  common  with 
Shelley  and  Wordsworth,  who  were  considered 
the  representative  nature  poets  of  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  "  Pauline," 
"  Paracelsus  "  and  "  Sordello  "  we  discover 
traces   of   Shelley's   influence.     Shelley's  music 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      21 

struck  a  responsive  chord  in  Browning's  heart, 
and  the  grace  and  beauty  of  his  descriptions 
stirred  his  imagination.  But  the  soul  that 
thirsts  for  the  water  of  life  can  never  be  satis- 
fied merely  with  the  delicate  tracery  on  the  out- 
side of  the  silver  cup  which  has  been  emptied  of 
its  life-giving  contents.  Shelley's  beauty  of 
form  appealed  to  Browning,  but  Browning 
hungered  and  thirsted  for  God!  Poor  Shelley 
did  not  so  much  as  mention  the  name  of  God. 
While  he  was  at  Oxford  he  wrote  an  essay  "  On 
the  Necessity  of  Atheism,"  and  in  accordance 
with  his  wish  the  simple  epitaph  on  his  tomb- 
stone in  Italy  describes  him  as  an  "  atheist." 
Although  he  tried  to  abolish  God  from  His  uni- 
verse, yet  he  did  recognize  a  sort  of  spiritual 
presence  pervading  the  world: 

"  One  remains,  the  many  change  and  pass ; 
Heaven's  light  forever  shines;  earth's  shadows 

flee. 
Life,  like  a  dome  of  many-colored  glass, 
Stains  the  white  radiance  of  eternity 
Until  Death  tramples  it  to  fragments." 

The  "  One "  to  whom  Shelley  so  beautifully 
yet  so  vaguely  refers  is  to  Browning  the  un- 
changing God  of  love  and  power. 

Wordsworth  goes  a  step  farther  than  Shelley 
and  sees  through  nature's  loveliness  the  spirit 
of  nature's  God: 


22      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

"  The  clouds  were  touched 
And  in  their  silent  faces  did  he  read 
Unutterable  love !  " 

It  is  the  mature  man  who  is  speaking  in  "  Tin- 
tern  Abbey  " : 

"  I  have  learned  to  look 
On  nature,  not  as  in  the  hour 
Of  thoughtless  youth;  but  hearing  ofttimes  the 

still,  sad  music  of  humanity; 
Not  harsh,  nor  grating,  though  of  ample  power 
To  chasten  and  subdue." 

But  Wordsworth  was  not  a  poet  of  humanity 
in  the  sense  in  which  Browning  was.  A  friend 
once  said  to  Browning,  "  You  have  not  a  great 
love  for  nature,  have  you  ?  "  to  which  the  poet 
replied,  "  Yes,  I  have,  but  I  love  men  and  women 
better."  Browning  went  beyond  Shelley  in  that 
he  thought  of  nature,  with  Wordsworth,  as 
simply  the  garment  of  God.  As  a  man  of 
faith  Browning  was  superior  to  Wordsworth 
in  that  he  was  not  merely  a  poet  of  nature  but 
also  a  poet  of  the  human  soul. 

And  yet  in  his  best  religious  passages  Words- 
worth seems  to  fall  into  a  vague,  pantheistic 
mood  as,  for  example,  he  continues  in  "  Tintern 
Abbey": 

"  I  have  felt 
A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 


FAITH  OP^  ROBERT  BROWNING      23 

Of  elevated  thoughts;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused. 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns. 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air. 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  the  mind  of  man; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

But  Browning's  God  is  not  only  a  "  pres- 
ence "  or  an  indefinable  "  something "  or  a 
"  motion  and  a  spirit  "  that  pervades  nature 
like  ether.  He  is  a  creative  Cause  and  a  con- 
trolling Will.  Browning  was  a  pronounced 
evolutionist  before  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  and 
Charles  Darwin  had  given  the  world  the  result 
of  their  investigations,  but  he  was  a  Christian 
evolutionist.  He  thought  of  evolution  as  a 
principle  of  life,  a  method  of  development, 
God's  way  of  working.  In  describing  the  evo- 
lutionary process  Huxley  somewhere  says,  in 
his  characteristic,  agnostic  style,  "  The  human 
species,  like  others,  plashed  and  floundered 
amid  the  general  stream  of  evolution,  keeping 
its  head  above  the  water  as  best  it  might,  and 
thinking  neither  of  whence  nor  whither/^ 
Browning's  spiritual  instincts  enabled  him  to 
look  at  the  evolutionary  process  from  a  higher 
plane.  He  thought  of  it  not  as  a  blind  upward 
struggle,  but  as  an  orderly  movement  that  had 
its  beginning  and  its  end  in  God.     He  believed 


24      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

in  a  God  who  works  according  to  law  upward 
physically  through  nature  to  man,  and  intel- 
lectually, morally  and  spiritually  through  man 
to  the  Christ  ideal.  While  scientific  material- 
ism left  the  question  of  agency  unsolved  and 
presented  the  doctrine  of  evolution  as  atheistic, 
it  is  evident  that  Browning  regards  God  as  be- 
ing back  of  and  in  the  process,  directing  it  to- 
ward a  divine  goal.  There  is  a  remarkable 
passage  in  "  Paracelsus  "  which  expresses  his 
faith  in  an  immanent,  eternally  creative  God. 
It  is  all  the  more  remarkable  because  it  was 
written  in  1835,  while  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies," which,  in  a  certain  sense,  it  anticipates, 
was  first  published  in  1859.  In  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Furnivall,  written  in  1881,  touching  this  point. 
Browning  said :  "  All  that  seemed  proved  in 
Darwin's  scheme  was  a  conception  familiar  to 
me  from  the  beginning." 

**  The  centre-fire  heaves  underneath  the  earth, 
And  the  earth  changes  like  a  human  face ; 
The  molten  ore  bursts  up  among  the  rocks, 
Winds  into  the  stone's  heart,  out-branches  bright 
In  hidden  mines,  spots  barren  river-beds, 
Crumbles  into  fine  sand  where  sunbeams  bask, — 
God  joys   therein.     The  wroth  sea's   waves   are 

edged 
With  foam,  white  as  the  bitten  lip  of  hate ; 
When  in  the  solitary  wastes  strange  groups 
Of  young  volcanoes  come  up,  cyclops-like, 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      25 

Staring  together  with  their  eyes  on  flame, — 
God  tastes  a  pleasure  in  their  uncouth  pride. 
Then  all  is  still;  earth  is  a  wintry  clod; 
But  spring-wind,  like  a  dancing  psaltress,  passes 
Over  its  breast  to  waken  it;  rare  verdure 
Buds  tenderly  upon  rough  banks,  between 
The  withered  tree-roots  and  the  cracks  of  frost, 
Like  a  smile  striving  with  a  wrinkled  face; 
The  grass  grows  bright,  the  boughs  are  swollen 

with   blooms 
Like  chrysalids  impatient  for  the  air, 
The  shining  dorrs  are  busy,  beetles  run 
Along  the  furrows,  ants  make  their  ado; 
Above,  birds  fly  in  merry  flocks;  the  lark 
Soars  up  and  up,  shivering  for  very  joy; 
Afar  the  ocean  sleeps;  white  fishing  gulls 
Flit  where  the  strand  is  purple  with  its  tribe 
Of  nested  limpets;  savage  creatures  seek 
Their  loves  in  wood  and  plain, —  and  God  renews 
His  ancient  rapture.     Thus  He  dwells  in  all. 
From  life's  minute  beginnings,  up  at  last 
To  man, —  the  consummation  of  this  scheme 
Of  being,  the  completion  of  this  sphere  of  life. 
And  man  produced,  all  has  its  end  thus  far. 
But  in  completed  man  begins  anew 
A  tendency  toward  God." 

Thus  in  his  scheme  it  is  seen  that  man  is  re- 
lated physically  to  nature  below  him,  and  spir- 
itually to  the  God  above.  If  with  the  perfec- 
tion of  man's  body  natural  evolution  has 
reached  a  state  of  arrested  development,  with 


26      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

man  also  begins  a  process  of  spiritual  evolu- 
tion which  has  its  goal  in  the  moral  ideal. 

"Progress  is  man's  distinctive  mark  alone; 
Not  God's,  and  not  the  beast's.     God  is;  they 

are; 
Man  partly  is,  but  wholly  hopes  to  be." 

In  "  Prince  Hoenstiel-Schwangau  "  this  lower 
side  of  man's  relationship  is  emphasized: 

"  For  many  a  thrill  of  kinship  I  confess  to 
With  the  powers  called  nature,  animate  and  in- 
animate ; 
In  parts  or  in  the  whole  there's  something  there 
Manlike  that  somehow  meets  the  man  in  me." 

But  in  "  Babbi  Ben  Ezra  "  there  is  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  nobler  origin  and  a  diviner 
destiny : 

**  Rejoice  we  are  allied 
To  that  which  doth  provide, 
And  not  partake,  effect  and  not  receive. 
A  spark  disturbs  our  clod. 
Nearer  we  hold  of  God 
Who  gives  than  of  His  tribes  that  take." 

And  again  in  "  Ferishtah's  Fancies  " : 

"  I  needs  must  blend  the  quality  of  man 
With  quality  of  God." 

But  this  spiritual  kinship  with  God  does  not 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      27 

mean   absolute   identity.     In   "  A   Death   in   a  ^ 

Desert  "  he  makes  it  very  clear  that  while  man 
partakes  of  the  nature  of  God,  he  has  a  distinct 
individuality : 

"  Man  is  not  God,  but  hath  God's  end  to  serve ; 
A  master  to  obey,  a  Cause  to  take, 
Somewhat  to  cast  off,  somewhat  to  become." 

A  few  lines  from  "  Christmas  Eve  "  will  shgw        X 
the   spiritual   kinship   that   exists   between   the 
creature  and  Creator: 

"  Take  all  in  a  word:  the  truth  in  God's  breast 
Lies  trace  for  trace  upon  ours  impressed; 
Though  He  is  so  bright  and  we  so  dim, 
We  are  made  in  His  image  to  witness  Him." 

In  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra's  fine  interpretation  of 
life  as  struggle,  growth,  attainment  there  is 
often  the  sense  of  failure.  But  that  is  all 
right !  The  motive,  the  intention,  the  dominat- 
ing purpose  of  life  is  there ! 

"  All  I  could  never  be, 
All  men  ignored  in  me. 
This  I  was  worth  to  God. 

"  What  I  aspired  to  be 
And  was  not,  comforts  me; 
A  brute  I  might  have  been,  but  would  not 
sink  in  the  scale." 


28      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

The  old  Rabbi  looks  forward  to  the  time  when 
the  body  shall  have  served  its  purpose  in  pro- 
jecting the  soul  on  its  lone,  upward  way,  and 
he  summons  age 

"  To  grant  youth's  heritage. 
Life's  struggle  having  so  far  reached  its  term. 
Thence  shall  I  pass  approved 
A  man  for  aye  removed 
From  the  developed  brute, 
A  God,  though  in  the  germ." 

In  thinking  of  this  slow  upward  movement 
of  life  one  cannot  help  recalling  that  profound 
utterance  of  St.  Paul  in  Romans  where  with 
a  grand  sweep  of  the  imagination  he  sees  na- 
ture in  the  agony  of  birth-throes  producing 
the  spiritual  man,  and  with  his  great  mind 
grasps  the  spiritual  meaning  of  it  all.  "  The 
whole  creation  travaileth  together  in  pain  until 
now.  .  .  .  For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the 
creation  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons 
of  God."  And  this  point  having  been  reached, 
the  words  of  the  Apostle  John  take  on  a  new 
meaning :  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  children 
of  God  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  he,  but  we  know  that  when  it  shall  appear 
we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as 
He  is."  I  All  the  way  through  man's  moral 
progress  is  nothing  more  than  the  spiritual  in- 
carnation of  God. 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      29 

But  in  those  lonely  hours  of  the  soul  when  we 
are  baffled  by  life's  mysteries  and  dissatisfied 
with  Browning's  faith  in  a  God  manifested  in 
nature  and  in  the  life  of  man,  and  we  feel  the 
need  of  some  deeper  truth  to  hearten  us,  and 
we  go  to  him  with  Philip's  old  desire  burning 
in  our  hearts  and  trembling  on  our  lips, — 
"  Show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us," — 
this  great  interpreter  of  life  and  religion  rever- 
ently unveils  for  us  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
"  In  Him  dwelt  the  fullness  of  the  God-head 
bodily."  Jesus  was  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh.  It  is  remarkable  that  as  a  youth  he  was 
deeply  impressed  with  the  Gospel  story  and 
entered  into  spiritual  fellowship  with  the  human 
God  in  Jesus: 

"  Can  I  forego  the  trust  that  He  loves  me  ? 
....  Do  I  not 
Pant  when  I  read  of  Thy  consummate  power, 
And  burn  to  see  Thy  calm,  pure  truths  outflash 
The  brightest  gleams  of  earth's  philosophy? 

Oft  have  I  stood  by  Thee, 

Have  I  been  keeping  lonely  watch  with  Thee 
In  the  damp  night  by  weeping  Olivet, 
Or  leaning  on  Thy  bosom,  proudly  less. 
Or  dying  with  Thee  on  the  lonely  Cross, 
Or  witnessing  thine  outburst  from  the  tomb." 

He  thoroughly  believed  in  the  Incarnation, 
in  the  infinite  sacrifice  and  suffering  of  God,  in 


30      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

the  power  of  the  Resurrection  Life.  Love  is 
the  theme  that  runs  through  all  the  music  of 
God's  life.  In  the  following  quotations  we  get 
glimpses  of  the  height  and  depth  and  breadth 
of  his  faith  in  God. 

"  I  never  realized  God's  birth  before. 
How  He  grew  likest  God  in  being  born. 
Such  ever  was  love's  way, —  to  rise,  it  stoops." 

"  Would  I  suffer  for  him  that  I  love?     So  wouldst 

thou, —  so  wilt  thou! 
So  shall  crown  Thee  the  topmost,  ineffablest,  ut- 
termost crown, 
And  Thy  love  fill  infinitude  wholly,  nor  leave  up 

nor  down 
One  spot  for  the  creature  to  stand  in!     It  is  by 

no  breath. 
Turn  of  eye,  wave  of  hand,  that  salvation  joins 

issue  with  death! 
As  Thy  love  is  discovered  almighty,  almighty  be 

proved 
Thy  power,  that  exists  with  it  and  for  it,  of  being 

beloved ! 
He  who  did  most  shall  bear  most;  the  strongest 

shall  stand  the  most  weak. 
'Tis  the  weakness  in  strength  that  I  cry  for;  my 

flesh  that  I  seek 
In  the  Godhead !     I  seek  and  I  find  it.     O  Saul, 

it  shall  be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee, —  a  Man 

like  to  me 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      31 

Thou  shalt  love   and  be  loved  by,  forever!     A 

Hand  like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee ! 

See  the  Christ  stand !  " 

"  This  man  so  cured  regards  the  curer  then 

As, God  forgive  me, —  who  but  God  Himself, 

Creator  and  sustainer  of  the  world, 

That  came  and  dwelt  in  flesh  on  it  a  while. 

The  very  God!  — think,  Abid;  dost  thou  think? 

So  the  All-great  were  the  All-loving  too ! 

So  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice 

Saying,  '  O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here  1 

Face  my  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  myself ! 

Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  mayst  conceive  of  mine, 

But  love  I  gave  thee,  with  myself  to  love 

And  thou  must  love  me  who  have  died  for  thee.'  " 

Browning  was  once  discussing  his  own  faith 
with  Mrs.  Orr,  his  friend  and  biographer,  and 
he  closed  the  conversation  by  reading  to  her 
the   "Epilogue    from   Dramatis    Personae,"    in 
which  liis  own  Christian  faith  is  contrasted  with 
the  ancient  faith  of  Judaism  as   set  forth  by 
David,   and   with   modern    scepticism   of   which 
Renan   was    the    chief   exponent.     "It   will   be 
remembered,"  says  Mrs.  Orr,  "  that  the  beau- 
tiful and  pathetic  second  part  of  the  poem  is 
a  cry  of  spiritual  bereavement,  the  cry  of  those 
victims    of    nineteenth    century    scepticism    for 
whom   incarnate   Love   had   disappeared   from 
the  universe,  carrying  with  it  the  belief  in  God. 


32      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

The  third  part  attests  the  continued  existence 
of  God  in  Christ,  as  mystically  present  to  the 
individual  soul: 

'  That  Face,  far  from  vanish,  rather  grows, 
Or  decomposes  but  to  recompose, 
Becomes  my  universe  that  feels  and  knows.' 

'  That  face,'  said  Mr.  Browning,  as  he  closed 
the  book,  *  that  face  is  the  face  of  Christ :  that 
is  how  I  feel  about  Him.'  " 

Dr.  Augustus  Strong,  in  his  "  Great  Poets 
and  their  Theology,"  from  whose  chapter  on 
Browning  the  above  incident  is  quoted,  says: 
"  It  will  not  be  doubted  that  the  secret  of 
Browning's  persistent  optimism  lay  in  his 
recognition  of  Christ  as  God  and  Saviour.  If 
the  life  that  pulsates  through  all  nature  is  the 
life  of  Christ  and  if  the  hand  that  conducts  the 
march  of  history  is  the  hand  that  was  nailed 
to  the  Cross,  then  we  may  dismiss  our  fears  and 
advance  to  the  study  of  life's  problems  with 
cheerful  heart,  believing  with  Pippa  that,  how- 
ever great   the  intellectual   difficulties   may   be 

'  God's  in  His  heaven. 
All's  right  with  the  world.' 

Or  if  any  one  still  questions  whether  this  is 
the  real  source  of  the  poet's  quietude  as  he 
faces  the  mysteries  and  seeming  contradictions 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      33 

of  existence,"  Dr.  Strong  would  quote  for  him 
those  well  known  lines  from  "  A  Death  in  the 
Desert  " : 

"  I  say  the  acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ, 
Accepted  by  thy  reason,  solves  for  thee 
All  questions  in  the  world  and  out  of  it, 
And  has  so  far  advanced  thee  to  be  wise." 

Browning's  unfaltering  faith  in  God  carried 
with  it  a  mighty  faith  in  man's  inherent  good-  / 

ness  and  immortality.  He  interpreted  man's 
nature  and  destiny  in  the  light  of  what  he  be-  i 

lieved  God  to  be.  If  it  be  true,  as  Helen  Keller  / 
claims,  that  "we  cannot  be  optimists  until  we 
have  an  ideal,"  and  we  "  cannot  seek  intelli- 
gently for  good  until  we  have  known  evil,"  then 
Browning  was  well  qualified  to  be  a  teacher  of 
life.  If  with  DeWitt  Hyde  we  define  pessimism 
as  "  the  art  of  emphasizing  the  evil  "  and  op- 
timism as  "  the  art  of  emphasizing  the  good 
and  throwing  the  evil  in  the  background,"  then 
Browning  was  the  most  consummate  optimist 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  did  not  close 
his  eyes  to  unpleasant  facts  when  he  made  Abt 
Vogler  say,  "  Evil  is  naught,  is  null,  is  silence 
implying  sound,"  nor  with  eyes  wide  open  did 
he  condescend  to  be  a  mere  "  painter  of  dirt." 
He  always  found  "  good  in  evil  and  a  hope  in 
ill  success "  because  his  faith  was  adequate 
to  meet  any  fact  or  experience  in  the  moral  uni- 


34      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

^  verse.     There  were  undoubtedly  many  flaws  in 

his  system  of  ethics,  but  his  optimism  was  by 
no  means  an  easy-going  kind.  Emerson  was 
always  serene,  but  he  dwelt  in  the  placid  upper 
air  of  philosophy,  "  far  from  the  madding 
crowd."  Browning  was  "  the  prophet  of 
struggling  manhood," — "  a  man  in  a  world  of 
men."  "  He  weaved  his  song  of  hope  right 
amidst  the  wail  and  w^oe  of  man's  sin  and 
/  wretchedness."     He   could  go  with  Carlyle  to 

/  /  the  slums  of  London  at  midnight  and  see  the 
\  devil  in  a  thousand  human  forms  and  still  be- 
/  /  lieve,  with  Emerson,  in  the  goodness  and  great- 
ness of  men.  Dr.  Wescott  said,  "  He  dared  to 
look  on  the  darkest  and  meanest  forms  of  ac- 
tion and  passion,  from  which  we  commonly  and 
rightly  turn  our  eyes,  and  he  has  brought  back 
for  us  from  this  universal  survey  a  conviction 
of  hope." 

"  Is  not  His  love  at  issue  still  with  sin.^  " 

Browning's  power  to  depict  evil  in  its  worst 
forms  is  seen  to  no  better  advantage  than  in 
"The  Ring  and  the  Book."  "He  creates 
Guido,  the  subtlest  and  most  powerful  com- 
pound of  vice  in  our  literature, —  except  lago, 
perhaps, —  merely  in  order  that  we  may  see 
evil  at  its  worst ;  and  places  him  in  an  environ- 
ment suited  to  his  nature." 


( 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      65 

"  Midmost  blotch  of  black 
Discernible  in  the  group  of  clustered  crimes 
Huddling  together  in  the  cave  they  call 
Their  palace." 

He    describes    the    mother    of    Guido    and    his 
brothers  as 

"  The  gaunt  grey  nightmare  in  the  furthest  smoke, 
The  hag  that  gave  these  three  abortions  birth, 
Unmotherly  mother  and  unwomanly 
Woman,  that  near  turns  motherhood  to  shame. 
Womanliness  to  loathing." 

Against  this  dark  background  of  human  life 
the  beauty,  peace  and  strength  of  a  pure  soul 
like  Pompilia's  shine  out  all  the  more  clearly. 
She 

"  Sent  prayer  like  incense  up 
To  God  the  strong,  God  the  beneficent, 
God  ever  mindful  in  all  strife  and  strait. 
Who,  for  our  own  good,  makes  the  need  extreme,         y 
Till  at  the  last  He  puts  forth  might  and  saves." 

In  commenting  on  these  lines  Professor  Jones 
says :  "  We  feel  the  poet's  purpose,  constant 
throughout  the  whole  poem.  We  know  all  the 
while  that  with  him  at  our  side  we  can  travel 
safely  through  the  depths  of  the  Inferno,  for  ^ 
the  flames  bend  back  for  him;  and  it  is  only 
what  we  expect  as  the  result  of  it  all,  that 
there  should  come 


36      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

'  A  bolt  from  heaven  to  cleave  roof  and  clear 
place, 

.  .  .  then  flood 
And  purify  the  scene  with  outside  day  — 
Which  yet,  in  the  absolute  drench  of  dark, 
Ne'er  wants  its   witness,  some  stray  beauty- 
beam 
To  the  despair  of  hell.'  " 

While  Browning  teaches  the  oneness  of  man's 
nature  with  the  nature  of  God,  he  emphasizes 
man's  individuality,  and  makes  each  character 
work  out  his  own  salvation.  He  leaves  room 
for  man's  freedom, — 

"  Life's  business  being  just  the  terrible  choice." 

"God's  all;  man's  nought; 
But  also,  God,  whose  pleasure  brought 
Man  into  being,  stands  away 
As  it  were  a  hand-breadth  off,  to  give 
Room  for  the  newly-made  to  live. 
And  look  at  Him  from  a  place  apart. 
And  use  his  gifts  of  brain  and  heart." 

God's  purpose  was 

**  To  create  man  and  then  leave  him 
Able,  His  own  word  saith,  to  grieve  Him, 
But  able  to  glorify  Him  too, 
As  a  mere  machine  could  never  do, 
That  prayed  or  praised,  all  unaware 
Of  its  fitness  for  aught  but  praise  or  prayer, 
Made  perfect  as  a  thing  of  course," 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      37 

/^  Browning  was  willing  to   trust  man   to   the  \ 

utmost  in  realizing  the  purpose  of  his  being. 
f  Through  sin,  sorrow,  sickness,  mistake,  failure, 

V  the  soul  must  ever  travel  on  until  it  finds  itself 

^ .  in  God.  This  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  good  over  evil  is  summed  up  in  "  Apparent 
Failure  " : 

"  It's  wiser  being  good  than  bad; 

It's  safer  being  meek  than  fierce; 
It's  fitter  being  sane  than  mad. 

My  own  hope  is,  a  sun  will  pierce 
The  thickest  cloud  earth  ever  stretched; 

That  after  Last  returns  the  First, 
Though  a  wide  compass  round  be  fetched; 

That  what  began  best  can't  end  worst, 
And  what  God  blessed  once  prove  accursed." 

Browning's  faith  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  may  rest  partly  on  the  scientific  fact  of 
the  indestructibility  of  life  as  a  whole,  but  his 
grand  hope  also  grows  out  of  his  conception 
of  the  nature  of  God,  out  of  his  own  spiritual 
instincts  and  his  sense  of  the  incompleteness 
of  life  here. 

"  There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good!     What  was 
shall  live  as  before." 

**  What  was  good  shall  be  good." 


38      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

"  On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs ;  in  the  heaven  a 
perfect  round." 

"  All  we  have  willed  or  hoped  or  dreamed  of  good 

shall  exist; 
Not   its    semblance,    but    itself;    no   beauty,   nor 

good,  nor  power 
Whose  voice  has   gone   forth,  but  each  survives 

for  the  melodist 
When  eternity  affirms  the  conception  of  an  hour. 
The  high  that  proved  too  high,  the  heroic   for 

earth  too  hardj 
The  passion  that  left  the  ground  to  lose  itself 

in  the  sky. 
Are  music  sent  up  to  God  by  the  lover  and  the 

bard; 
Enough  that  he  heard  it  once;  we  shall  hear  it 

by  and  by." 

"  And   what  is   our   failure   here  but  a  triumph's 
evidence 
For  the  fullness  of  the  days  ?  " 

In  a  sublime  passage  in  "  Saul,"  after  David 
has  comforted  the  low-spirited  king,  he  feels 
that  he  has  come  upon  the  truth  at  last,  and 
argues  the  reasonableness  of  immortality  on  the 
basis  of  love: 

"  Do  I  find  love  so  full  in  my  nature,  God's  ulti- 
mate gift. 
That  I  doubt  His  own  love  can  compete  with  it? 
Here^  the  parts  shift? 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      39 

Here^    the    creature    surpass    the    Creator, —  the 

end,  what  began? 
Would  I  fain  in  my  impotent  yearning  do  all  for 

this  man, 
And  dare  doubt  He   alone   shall  not  help   him, 

who  yet  alone  can?  " 

He  thinks  it  strange  that  we  should 

"  In  the  least  things  have  faith,  yet  distrust  in  the 
greatest  of  all." 

Again  he  recalls  the  wonderful  life  with  which 
Saul  was  gifted  and  of  the  love  that  had  en- 
riched it.  Such  a  life  cannot  fail  utterly. 
The  work  of  redemption  may  not  be  completed 
here.  The  soul  needs  an  eternity  to  develop  its 
latent  possibilities. 

"  To  make  such  a  soul. 
Such  a  body,  and  then  such  an  earth  for  insphering 

the  whole? 
And  doth  it  not  enter  my  mind  (as  my  warm  tears 

attest) 
These  good  things  being  given,  to  go  on,  and  give 

one  morCj  the  best? 
Ay,  to  save  and  redeem  and  restore  him,  maintain 

at  the  height 
This    perfection, —  succeed   with    life's    dayspring, 

death's  minute  of  night? 
Interpose  at  the  difficult  minute,  snatch  Saul  the 

mistake, 
Saul  the  failure,  the  ruin  he  seems  now, —  and  bid 

him  awake 


^/ 


40      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

From  the  dream^  the  probation,  the  prelude,  to  find 
himself  set 

Clear  and  safe  in  new  light  and  new  life, —  a  new 
harmony  yet 

To  be  run,  and  continued,  and  ended  —  who 
knows  ?  —  or  endure  ! 

The  man  taught  enough  by  life's  dream,  of  the  rest 
to  make  sure ; 

By  the  pain-throb,  triumphantly  winning  intensi- 
fied bliss. 

And  the  next  world's  reward  and  repose,  by  the 
struggles  in  this." 

But  what  if  the  soul's  finest  spiritual  in- 
stincts have  been  perverted  and  as  a  result  the 
moral  character  has  been  twisted  into  some 
fiendish  shape  that  belies  the  dignity  of  divine 
sonship?  Every  spark  of  goodness  seems  to 
have  gone  out  of  the  life  of  Guido.  If  there  is 
another  chance  for  Saul,  can  there  be  another 
chance  for  Guido?  We  shall  not  go  into  the 
metaphysical  difficulty  involved  here.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  according  to  the  mind  of  Browning, 
God  never  made  a  soul  in  vain.  If  that  were 
true,  then  he  would  still  hope  that  somewhere, 
here  or  beyond,  a  point  would  be  reached  where 
"  God  unmakes  but  to  remake  the  soul."  There 
is  not  a  spot  in  all  the  great  universe  where 
God's  love  is  not  present  and  "  beyond  the  dim 
unknown  "  He  is  "  standing  in  the  shadow  keep- 
ing watch  above  His  own."     There  is  a  vast 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING      41 

difference  between  Browning's  idea  of  life  and 
the  mere  fact  of  existence.  Eternal  life  is  pri- 
marily not  a  life  of  quantity  but  one  of  quality. 
The  moral  degenerate  has  not  entered  into  the 
fullness  of  life. 

There  stands  Guido  at  "  creation's  verge,"  a 
lonely  and  loveless  figure,  indeed.  He  seems  to 
have  been  cast  out  into  "  outer  darkness  where 
there  is  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth."  His 
soul  is  shrivelling  into  nothingness.  The  real 
life  is  at  a  very  low  ebb.     We  see  him 

"  Not  to  die  so  much  as  slide  out  of  life^ 
Pushed  by  the  general  horror  and  common  hate 
Lowj  lower, —  left  on  the  very  edge  of  things, 
I  seem  to  see  him  catch  convulsively. 
One  by  one  at  all  honest  forms  of  life. 
At  reason,  order,  decency  and  use. 
To  cramp  him  and  get  foothold  by  at  least; 
And  still  they  disengage  them  from  his  clutch. 

And  thus  I  see  him  slowly  and  surely  edged 
Off  all  the  table-land  whence  life  upsprings 
Aspiring  to  be  immortality." 

This  is  existence,  not  life.  But  Guido  is  not 
lost  forever.  Browning  believes  in  a  hell  but  it 
is  a  spiritual  experience^ —  the  slow  or  sudden 
awakening  of  the  sinful  soul  to  a  realizing  sense 
of  the  sinfulness  of  its  sin.  Punishment  is 
remedial,  not  retributive,  and  it  must  fulfil  its 
divine  purpose  here  or  hereafter.     While  God 


42      FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

is  Love,  He  is  also  Righteousness,  and  He  often 
seems  severe  in  the  execution  of  His  laws.  But 
His  justice  may  be  only  mercy  in  disguise. 
The  poor  restless  soul,  ever  dissatisfied  with  its 
lower  choices,  is  driven  on  relentlessly  through 
the  fires  of  pain  that  it  may  be  purified  and  at 
last  find  its  refuge  and  its  rest  in  God. 

But  the  good  man  rejoices  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  origin  and  destiny.  In  "  A  Death  in 
the  Desert,"  the  atmosphere  is  charged  with  the 
power  and  the  presence  of  the  living,  eternal 
Christ.  In  His  companionship  there  is  no 
doubt  about  the  reality  of  the  soul's  resurrec- 
tion. The  aged  John  hears  of  rumors  that 
have  spread  through  the  world  that  would  dis- 
credit the  life  and  teachings  of  his  Master. 
But  he  can  testify  out  of  personal  experience 
that  those  rumors  are  false.  In  the  quiet  of 
his  soul  he  still  hears  those  reassuring  words 
that  had  brought  so  much  hope  and  comfort  to 
the  heartbroken  in  days  gone  by, — "  I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life."  He  can  bravely 
face  the  last  sunset  and  in  its  golden  glow  enter 
the  gates  of  the  "  city  which  hath  foundations, 
w^hose  builder  and  maker  is  God." 

The  changes  of  this  life  are  the  stepping- 
stones  to  something  higher: 

"  Man  is  hurled 
From  change  to  change  unceasingly, 
His  soul's  wings  never  furled." 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING       43 

"  The  Future  I  may  face  now  I  have  proved  the 
Past." 

Neither  the  changes  of  this  life,  nor  the  last 
great  change,  death,  can  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  God,  nor  prevent  the  ongoing  of  the 
soul: 

"  Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul  and  God  stand  sure; 
What  entered  into  thee^ 

That   was^    is,   and   shall   be:     Potter   and   clay 
endure." 

Physical  death  is  only  an  incident  in  the 
continuity  of  the  spirit, —  a  shadow  that  has 
temporarily  fallen  across  the  river  that  forever 
flows  toward  the  ocean  of  eternity. 

"  O  lover  of  my  life,  O  soldier-saint ! 
No  work  begun  shall  ever  pause  for  death ! 
Love  will  be  helpful  to  me  more  and  more 
In    the    coming    course,    the    new    path    I    must 
tread." 

In  "  A  Grammarian's  Funeral  "  the  old  scholar 
is  buried  on  the  mountain-top 

"  Where  meteors  shoot,  clouds  form, 
Lightnings  are  loosened. 
Stars  come  and  go !  " 

He  had  spent  a  long  life-time  in  the  quest  of 


44       FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

truth  and  at  the  close  of  day  laid  down  his  tools 
with  his  work  all  around  him,  undone.  But  he 
had  thrown  himself  on  God  and  he  knew  that  in 
another  room  of  the  universe  he  would  keep  on 
with  his  tasks.     He  said: 

"What's   time?     Leave  Now   for  dogs   and  apes. 
Man  has   forever." 

Death  is  the  great  Emancipator.  There 
will  come  a  time  when  we  shall  need  the  body 
no  longer,  having  served  the  purpose  of  its  cre- 
ation in  projecting  the  soul  on  its  way.  We 
shall  be  glad  some  day  to  throw  away  the  phys- 
ical body  as  something  outworn  and  useless  and 
thus  be  able  to  rise  into  the  consciousness  of  a 
higher  freedom,  just  as  the  bird  breaks  away 
from  the  shell,  and  soars  upward,  and  fills  the 
air  with  sweet  music. 

Death  seems  like  an  everlasting  sleep.  But 
that  is  only  apparent.  The  figure  implies  a 
renewal  and  an  awakening.  After  the  black 
night  of  sorrow  comes  the  bright  dawn  of  eter- 
nal day. 

"  Death  with  the  might  of  his  sunbeam 
Touches  the  flesh  and  the  soul  awakes." 

Browning  had  within  him  the  witness  of  immor- 
tality : 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING       45 

"  Have,  you  found  your  life  distasteful  ? 

My  life  did  and  does  smack  sweet. 
Was   your  youth  of  pleasure  wasteful? 

Mine  I  saved  and  hold  complete. 
Do  your  joys  with  age  diminish? 

When  mine  fail  me  I'll  complain. 
Must  in  death  your  daylight  vanish? 

My  sun  sets  to  rise  again." 

There  are  two  short  poems  which  the  reader 
will  forgive  me  for  quoting  in  concluding  this 
interpretation  of  Browning's  faith,  for  they 
seem  to  me  to  express  more  clearly  than  any- 
thing that  he  ever  wrote  his  own  personal  hope. 
"  Prospice  "  was  written  a  short  time  after  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Browning.  The  closing  lines, 
which  undoubtedly  refer  to  her,  express  his 
conviction  that  he  will  meet  her  again  in  the 
life  beyond  and  find  love  still  unbroken: 

"  Fear  death  ?  —  to  feel  the  fog  in  my  throat, 

The  mist  in  my  face, 
When  the  snows  begin  and  the  blasts  denote 

I  am  nearing  the  place, 
The  power  of  the  night,  the  press  of  the  storm, 

The  post  of  the  foe; 
Where  he  stands,  the  Arch  Fear  in  a  visible  form  ? 

Yet  the  strong  man  must  go: 
For  the  journey  is  done  and  the  summit  attained. 

And  the  barriers  fall. 
Though   a  battle's   to  fight  ere  the  guerdon  be 
gained. 


46       FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

The  reward  of  it  all. 
I  was  ever  a  fighter,  so, —  one  fight  more, 

The  best  and  the  last! 
I  would  hate  that  death  bandaged  my  eyes,  and 
forebore. 
And  bade  me  creep  past. 
No!  let  me  taste  the  whole  of  it,  fare  like  my 
peers. 
The  heroes  of  old. 
Bear  the  brunt,  in  a  minute  pay  glad  life's  ar- 
rears 
Of  pain,  darkness  and  cold. 
For  sudden  the  worst  turns  the  best  to  the  brave. 

The  black  minute's  at  end. 
And  the  elements'  rage,  the  fiend-voices  that  rave. 

Shall  dwindle,  shall  blend. 
Shall  change,  shall  become  first  a  peace  out  of 
pain, 
Then  a  light,  then  thy  breast, 
O    thou    soul   of   my   soul !     I    shall   clasp   thee 
again. 
And  with  God  be  the  rest !  " 

The  "  Epilogue  to  Asolando  "  was  the  last 
poem  that  Browning  wrote.  It  has  all  of  the 
characteristics  of  his  virile  faith.  It  is  not  a 
sad  dirge  to  whose  mournful  strains  the  brave 
soldier  must  finally  march  to  his  doom.  It  is 
"  a  kind  of  re-enlistment  in  the  service  of  the 
good;  the  joyous  venturing  forth  on  a  new 
war  under  new  conditions  and  in  lands  un- 
known, by  a  heroic  man  who  is  sure  of  himself 
and  sure  of  his  cause." 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING       47 

"  At  the  midnight  in  the  silence  of  the  sleep-time. 
When  you  set  your  fancies  free. 
Will  they  pass  to  where, —  by  death,  fools  think, 

imprisoned, — 
Low  he  lies  who  once  so  loved  you,  whom  you 
loved  so, 

—  Pity  me  ? 

"  Oh,  to  love  so,  be  so  loved,  yet  so  mistaken ! 
What  had  I  on  earth  to  do 
With   the   slothful,   with   the   mawkish,   the   un- 
manly ? 
Like  the  aimless,  helpless,  hopeless,  did  I  drivel 

—  Being  —  who  ? 

"  One   who   never   turned   his   back   but   marched 
breast  forward. 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break. 
Never    dreamed,    though    right    were    worsted, 

wrong  would  triumph. 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better. 
Sleep  to  wake. 

"  No,  at  noonday  in  the  bustle  of  man's  work-time 
Greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer! 
Bid    him    forward,    breast    and    back    as    either 
should  be, 
'Strive   and   thrive!'   cry   'speed,   fight  on;   fare 
ever. 
There  as  here ! '  " 

In  its  ministry  to  the  manifold  needs  of  the 
higher  life  the  strong,  robust  faith  of  Robert 
Browning  has  been  justified  as  over  against  the 


48       FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING 

deadening  influence  of  the  scientific  materialism 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  as  knowledge  of 
the  truth  has  increased,  the  insolent  dictum  of 
Haeckel,  with  its  implied  prophecy  of  the 
gradual  and  ultimate  destruction  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  by  science,  has  been  proven  false. 
With  all  the  acknowledged  defects  in  some  of 
his  last  metaphysical  experiments  he  has  shown, 
in  his  work  as  a  whole,  the  sweet  reasonable- 
ness, the  absolute  necessity  and  the  deep  joy  of 
religion,  and  he  has  with  him  today,  in  the 
spirit  of  his  teachings,  such  representative 
thinkers  as  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  the  eminent  Eng- 
lish scientist,  who  insists  upon  a  belief  in  a 
personal  God  who  reigns  at  the  center  of 
things;  Henri  Bergson,  of  France,  with  his 
"  Creative  Evolution  " ;  and  Rudolf  Eucken,  of 
Germany,  with  his  spiritual  philosophy.  If  a 
generation  ago  unappreciative  critics  scoffed 
at  the  sound  of  this  new  voice  that  was  making 
itself  heard  in  literature,  today  they  place 
upon  the  brow  of  this  poet  a  crown  of  love. 
Prominent  theologians  from  the  ranks  of  or- 
thodoxy now  find  beneath  the  uneven  and  un- 
conventional forms  of  his  verse  a  faith  throb- 
bing with  the  life  of  God.  His  teaching  as  a 
working  force  in  human  life  is  recognized  by 
no  less  a  practical  idealist  and  statesman  than 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  w^ho  in  a  recent  review  of  a 
book  on   Browning's  work  said :     "  There   are 


FAITH  OF  ROBERT  BROWNING       49 

poets  whom  we  habitually  read  far  more  often 
than  Browning,  and  who  minister  better  to  our 
more  primitive  needs  and  emotions.  There  are 
few  whose  lines  come  to  us  so  naturally  in  cer- 
tain crises  of  the  soul,  which  are  also  crises  of 
the  intellect." 


"  I  go  io  prove  my  soul! 
I  see  my  way  as  birds  their  trackless  way. 
I  shall  ar lIW  !  what  iime,  what  circuit  first, 
I  ask  not:  but  unless  God  send  His  hail 
Or  blinding  fireballs,  sleet  or  stifling  snow, 
In  some  time,  His  good  time,  I  shall  arrive: 
He  guides  me  and  the  bird.     In  His  good  time ! 

—  Paracelsusi. 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

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